A Mortal Among Demons
by darkest.Quasar
Summary: Tae starts learning how to deal with his new life, surrounded by shifters and werelupes and vampires, while Shoal tries to teach him what he doesn't want to learn. Please, please, please, I know you get this a lot, but please R&R!
1. Magic

"TD! Hey, TD!"

_Oh dear. _The nimmo in question resisted the urge to cover his face with his hands. _Here comes psycho._ It had been over a month since Fangy and CO/D had picked him out of the pound. He still wasn't sure if he wouldn't have been better off staying there—he might be forgotten and uncared-for, but at least he could set something down without fear of it being stolen.

"TD!"

Thy_Death cast around the room he sat it, looking for something to hide behind. Of course, if Fangy was to be believed, he could just wish himself invisible. He snorted silently in disbelief. Magic. Right. What a laugh.

But Fangy had _something_, he couldn't argue that. Klepto and Psycho had it to, as did their elder brother, Kingly. The shape-shifter, Dray, she had it too. There was undeniably something…

But _magic_?

He shook his head. _"If you want something badly enough, and put that desire into the world around you, it will come. No, not by speaking. By _willing_."_ The words of Fangy, who was trying to teach him, echoed through his head. Great. Even inside his own head, he couldn't escape her.

So…if he really, truly wanted to be invisible, he would be? For a moment, Tae simply sat there, willing himself to disappear.

"TD!" Psycho burst into his room, and in that instant, something shifted slightly within him. For a moment, he forgot that he was trying to use magic, and simply willed himself with every part of his being to disappear.

"TD?" Psycho looked around the room, searching for the illusive nimmo. He had sensed him here before, but now…maybe TD was outside again. The pteri spun and raced away again, leaving Tae sitting on the floor gaping.

Magic?

* * *

_A/N (a/k/a a bunch of notes that will make a lot of things make a lot more sense):_

_Names and nicknames (the last ones are the names Tae gives others)_

_Thy_Death/TD/Tae_

_Enyashol/Shoal/Fangy_

_Andriana/Dray_

_Sylvver/Silv/Klepto_

_Eirnykk/Nick/Psycho_

_Keijjallah/Kia/Cloud-girl_

_Ahjen/Acara-magnet_

_Sadie/Crazy-acara_

_Raevvyn/Ray/Kingly_

_Iiyollah/A-M's Little Sister_

_Darkness/CO/D (Crazy-Owner/Darkness)That's me, in case you were wondering. :)_

_

* * *

_

_Anyway, I hope you enjoy this! I had fun writing it. :) My accounts on NP are Omnipetent_Q, Darkesteclipse, Darkestfern, and Darkestcoyote. I am currently working on the actual writing of the story that will be told later on in this one, along with a more adult version (a/k/a not neopets) of several stories with characters akin to these (those will be posted on FictionPress). Anyway, R&R, you will make my day!_

_--Quasar/Darkness/CO (luv you, Tae)_

_P.S. Yes, I own all of these pets, except a couple I am planning to create but haven't got to yet. Mainly, Lone Wolf. Anyone have suggestions for what species he should be?_

_And please, don't say lupe. :)_

_Dai!_


	2. Enyashol

Enyashol felt it the minute Tae/TD broke through the barrier separating him from his magic. She had worked with him enough that ties had begun to form between their separate magics, even before he accepted that they even existed. Shoal grinned to herself, wondering what had caused the breakthrough. Of course, hearing Eirnykk, her friend's brother, screaming, 'TD' at the top of his lungs for the past ten minutes, she could guess.

_Speak of Balthazar_, she thought as Nick burst into her room. "Hey Shoal! Have you seen TD?"

_Yes,_ she thought. _I can certainly understand what may have triggered his magic._


	3. Invisible

Tae stared after Psycho, still in shock, then slowly, slowly, looked down at his own hands.

They were still there.

He frowned in confusion. He was sure he had become invisible—Psycho had looked right at and through him. And yet nothing had changed. _Maybe he just didn't see me,_ he thought. Rising in one fluid motion, he decided to find Fangy. At least she could tell him how to best avoid her kleptomaniac friend's psychotic brother.

Ah…but said Psycho was just emerging from Fangy's room. Tae stood perfectly still, praying to Fyora that the excitable pteri wouldn't notice him. No luck. Psycho was walking straight towards him…

…and straight past him. _What?_ He looked down at his hands again. Nope, still there. To experiment, he jumped out right in front of Psycho, and had to dodge to the side to keep from being knocked over by the pteri's purposeful flight. Tae gaped as Shoal came out of her room and also looked through him. _It looks like I'm invisible to everyone except myself._ Then he grinned. _Well, why not? I don't care if I see myself. This could be fun!_ About to follow Psycho and enact revenge for a full month of torture, he realized that Fangy was looking at him.

Right at him.

_Uh-oh._ The xweetok was whispering under her breath, and Tae realized suddenly that there was probably a way to see through invisibility. She smiled, and beckoned silently. Knowing he was caught, Tae barely considered escape—he had tried that once before, and knew that he could never out-run the vampiric xweetok. Resigned, he walked through the door she held open.


	4. A Teacher and Her Student

Shoal smelled Tae before she thought to use her second sight. As a vampire, the smell of mortal blood was as clear to her as the smell of smoke was to a mortal. Whispering a spell of sorts, she saw a wavering outline frozen beyond where Nick was walking away. She grinned to herself. She had thought Tae might have strong magic, and not just the few sparks that many held. It appeared she had been right. If she hadn't been able to smell him, she might have passed over the distortion in the air, even with second sight.

She saw his shoulders slump slightly as he walked over and into her workroom. _Poor Tae,_ she thought. It was hard, living in a world with only two other mortal pets—the rest were either vampiric, werelupes, kelpic, or shifters, and neither of the other two mortals had magic.

But then, no mortal did.

And that was why she felt sorry for him.

She shut the door behind the two of them, and Tae appeared to her normal sight almost immediately, still looking like a youngling caught at disobedience. She resisted the urge to laugh and beckoned to an empty cushion near the wall. Tae sat fluidly, legs crossed in typical Nimmo fashion. He looked up at her guiltily.

Shoal smiled carefully, making sure that her fangs didn't show. Tae was still terrified by her more demonic traits, though he hid it well. Very well, in fact. _Another talent?_ she wondered. Keeping her wings flat to her body, she turned and began rummaging through the large wooden chest sitting by her desk. She could hear Tae shifting uneasily behind her. He really was scared of her, she realized. It was so easy to forget when he hid it so well.

Finally, she found was she was looking for, and turned around, careful to keep her movements relatively slow and predictable. "Here," she said, handing him a piece of twine. He took it, looked it over, and looked back up at her incredulously.

"It's…string."

She bit back a laugh. "Yes."

"And…?"

"Put it around your ankle." She watched his expression closely. He was still obviously dubious, but did as she said anyway. Immediately, the string twined around his ankle, forming a complete loop within seconds. Blinking with surprise, he looked up at her.

"An anklet."

She nodded. He blinked again.

"Why?"

Again, Shoal bit back a smile. Tae's questions, though not always obvious, were always to the point. "It's an amplifier."

A third blink.

"It amplifies your magic, enabling you to use more energy without killing yourself, and to affect things over a broader range." She made a silent bet with herself that he'd blink again.

She won.

"Instead of only making yourself invisible, imagine being able to make a whole group of people invisible."

This time, she could tell he got it. He reached down, twisting it between his fingers. "How do I know this isn't just something so you can keep track of me? Or…" he trailed off.

"Or keep you under control?" she finished for him. "Use your magic. Check it for anything out of the ordinary."

The predictable blink. "How?"

Shoal shrugged, feeling sympathetic, but knowing she couldn't show it. That was the struggle with learning magic—it had to be instinct.

White fire abruptly washed over the anklet, then disappeared. Shoal bit back a shout. Her suspicions were correct. She only knew one other person whose magic was white…

Tae looked up at her. "I still don't trust you," he stated bluntly.

Shoal smiled broadly, this time not bothering to hide her fangs. Tae didn't flinch. "I don't expect you to trust me. I'd be a fool if I did." Tae nodded, almost imperceptibly, and she closed her mouth before she could start laughing.

"Thank you." He left abruptly, and Shoal grinned. Things would be disappearing and re-appearing all day.

She could almost feel sorry for Nick.


	5. Andriana

Tae smiled. He couldn't help it. Magic! The world seemed vibrant, more alive than it had been for years! He jumped up without thinking, running up one of the tall trees outside CO/D's house. He laughed aloud. Why not? Magic!

Running along the tall branches, he tensed his muscles and jumped, curling into a ball and flipping over twice before landing lightly in another trees several meters along. He looked back. The house was quite a ways away now—no-one could hear him from there. He stood as tall as he could, threw back his head, and laughed in sheer delight. Magic!

A quiet chuckle answered his reckless amusement, and he spun, immediately embarrassed. Another nimmo sat on a branch a few feet away, smiling at him. "Hello, Tae." He frowned for a moment, then looked at the nimmo's eyes. Blue irises rimmed with a thin black line looked back at him. He blinked in complete surprise.

"Dray?"

She laughed. "I was wondering if you'd recognize me." She was more relaxed that he had ever seen her, smiling openly, her strange eyes gentle. Tae wondered suddenly if she disliked society as much as he did. "What gave it away?"

Tae couldn't help but smile back. "Your eyes. There's no norm—mortal pet with eyes like yours."

Dray laughed, jumping lightly and sitting next to him, swaying slightly in the wind. "You looked like you were having fun, there."

Tae was glad of his red color. It hid his blush. "I just…discovered something new about myself."

"Magic?" He stared at her. Sometimes she was so perceptive that it was scary.

"Uh…yeah. I mean, Fangy—er, Shoal told me I had it, but…" he trailed off, embarrassed now that he hadn't believed her. Well, who trusted a vampire?

Dray nodded. "What sane pet would believe something like that right away? You had to see for yourself." She shifted, her body changing fluidly into that of a blue xweetok. Tae blinked, something occurring to him.

"Dray? What you do…the shape-changing, I mean…it that magic too? Could—" he stopped, then finished his sentence in a whisper. "Could _I_ do it?"

Dray watched him guardedly. "I don't see why not. Here, try it." He looked at her blankly, causing her to laugh again. "Imagine another form, any other form, and try to imagine yourself as it."

"Anything?" Tae's mind raced furiously. "Like, even a tree? Or a lake? Or—"

Dray cut him off. "Anything sentient."

Blink.

"Anything capable of the knowledge that it exists."

_Oh,_ he thought. His mind raced along his past. What could he try?

A memory occurred to him suddenly. He was only a few months old, his first three owners come and gone. His fourth owner had taken him to Mystery Island, and the city of Geripiktu. In the deserted tomb, they had come across a ghost, a magnificent hissi with ornaments from the island proper. Red eyes and sharp fangs had faced them, and the young nimmo had wished he could be something so beautiful, so strong.

Closing his eyes, he imagined a brown hissi. _Wings,_ he thought, trying to imagine the feeling of extra limbs. _No arms, no legs, smooth body._ He built a picture of a hissi in his mind, trying to transfer every feeling into his muscles. He swayed, feeling dizzy, and opened his eyes. _Something's wrong,_ he thought. Dray was staring at him excitedly. But she looked…small. Xweetoks were small pets, but this was different.

The world looked smaller than normal. Except the height—oh dear, he was high up. Flailing madly, he tried to catch the branch with his hands, but nothing was happening…he was falling. He reached out and caught himself on a higher branch with his wings moments before he toppled to the ground.

…his _wings???_

Gaping, he looked down at his serpentine body, up at his brown wings, and finally over at Dray, who was laughing.

"I would have picked a creature more suited to treetops, but that was quite good!" She smiled at him unreservedly. He blinked several times, still trying to understand what had happened to him. He looked at her helplessly, his eyes pleading for understanding. "You shifted, Tae," she said softly, her smile kind and proud. "First try, even." Tae looked down at himself again. A hissi. He had done it.

Suddenly he started laughing. He could shift! He thought of the xweetok sitting on the branch next to him, of small paws, of a stripe on his back, of soft fur, of quick, darting eyes…

And now Dray looked big. Well, not big, but normal. He looked down at his hands…paws. _Amazing,_ he thought. _Incredible._ And then, _Impossible._

But the xweetok in front of him laughed and shifted back to her normal form of a zafara. Her green fur rippled slightly and turned white, wings growing on her back, until a christmas zafara—minus the halo—stood in front of him. He barely had to think about it before his own fur turned the same color, spines forming along his back leading to his heavy tail. Grinning, Dray shifted again, this time into an eyrie. Tae followed, making his own fur and feathers a deep black. Dray took off, and he followed, taking a moment to figure out how his new wings worked. Laughing again with delight, he became a shoyru, and did a flip in the air simply for the fun of it. He looked around for Dray, but saw only a beautiful Skree.

_A petpet?_ he thought. Then, _Why not?_ He pulled his form in until his own feathers were the bright blues and greens and purples of a fiery Skree. He laughed, a rather odd sound, coming out of a bird's beak—more of a shriek than a chuckle. He flew after Dray, realizing suddenly that every shape he had taken, save his normal one, he had been slightly larger than her. _I wonder why that is? _he thought.

He banked sharply as he flew over Dray's head, flying straight up until he could see the surrounding forest for miles. He inhaled sharply—mostly at the view, though the air was much thinner this high up. He realized that his wings could barely find purchase in air this thin, and understood suddenly why Dray, with her even smaller wings, was circling a few yards below him. Pulling in his wings, he angled himself into a steep dive, blowing past Dray to nearly touch the top of the trees before spreading the wings of an eyrie and pulling himself upright to land neatly on one of the more stable looking branches. Dray landed next to him in the same form, her white pelt glistening in the sunlight.

_White,_ he thought. When he had looked at the anklet Fangy had given him, he had pushed white fire through it. _Is that the color of my magic?_ he wondered. He held out a front claw, and concentrated hard. The more he shifted and got used to the fact that he had these powers, he was noticing, the more easily his magic came when he wanted to try something new. _Fire,_ he thought. Sure enough, a small fireball erupted in between his talons, pure white. He realized that, though it looked like fire in all but color, and shed plenty of light in the shade beneath the leaves, it gave off no heat. _White magic,_ he thought.

Whenever he saw Fangy use magic—he hadn't realized what it was at the time, but he understood now—it had been black. Klepto's was silver, and Psycho's was a light brown. Kingly's magic was also black, he thought, remembering the time when the older eyrie had swept up a broken glass without anyone besides Tae noticing, but it was not the same black as Fangy's. The vampire's magic was black like a night sky with no stars, while Kingly's was a dark color that was nearly iridescent. Tae wondered if Cloud-girl's magic was black as well.

Suddenly curious, he looked over at Dray, letting the fire in his claws die. Fangy had done something to see him when he was invisible, so why not look for magic? She had known that he had it, after all…

He concentrated on the shining pelt in front of him, on her odd, black-rimmed eyes. _Magic,_ he thought fiercely. _What color is her magic?_ Then he got it. Sparkling white fire played along her veins, originating somewhere deep inside of her. _It's in her blood, _he understood suddenly. Looking down at his own front legs, he could see the same fire rushing through his own blood. He blinked in surprise. His fire was brighter than hers.

A random memory pushed to the surface of his mind. It was when he had first met Dray, and had been stunned by the shape-shifting. At some point, age had come up, and he had realized that he was nearly three times her age, and yet she acted so much older than him. She had mentioned something about reincarnation, that she was a combination of her own personality and that of people who had come before. On impulse, he asked, "You told me once that your shape-shifting came from the fact that you had the memories of people that came before." Her face was expressionless, a mask he recognized from whenever anyone else was there. "You're not going to tell me." It was the second not-question he had asked, and he got no more response from this one then the former.

"Why won't you answer my questions?" Frustration crept into his voice, and he immediately felt ashamed. Dray, however, looked more understanding than annoyed.

"I can't tell you the answers to your questions, not yet." It took him a moment to remember that, as a seer, she would have seen his other questions as well.

"You _can't_? Why not?" He watched her face curiously, and she watched him back. Suddenly he got it. "Fangy." The slight amusement that appeared in her eyes whenever he used one of his nicknames for their family was not missing, but was half-shadowed by the understanding sorrow that had re-appeared when he had started questioning her. He did have one question, though, and this one he thought the shifter could answer.

"Why do you all listen to her? Why is she so…" he bit back the harsher words he was going to use. "…respected?"


	6. Lynda's Story

Dray blinked in surprise, and he realized with a start that he had asked the question so soon after he had thought of it that she had had no time to see him ask it.

"It's a long story," she began, unusually hesitant. "How much do you know about Shoal?"

Tae shrugged. "Not a lot. She's a vampire, I never really thought much beyond that." Embarrassment colored his voice as he spoke, realizing that Fangy was Dray's friend. _Anything that matters to Dray should matter to me,_ he thought, and resolved to find out more about the family that had adopted him. _She doesn't give friendship easily, I've seen that. Maybe there is more to Fangy than meets the eye…_ Still, it was hard to get past the instinctual fear of the vampire.

Shifting back into his normal form of a nimmo, he leaped back to the ground. Dray followed him, shifting back into a zafara as she did.

"Do you know her full name?" The question was unexpected, and Tae blushed slightly, shaking his head.

"Her full name is Enyashol Ayllinaos." _Ayllinaos???_ _That was the name of the vampire queen—er, empress. Are they related or something, I wonder?_ Dray watched him carefully, but his face betrayed none of the confusion inside his mind. Dray continued her story.

"She was mortal once, a, as you say, 'normal' pet living on the outskirts of Meridell with her owner and younger sister, Angel. Her name was Lynda, and her owner was Aemii. They were a very rich family, with a large mansion and everything either child could dream of only a query away. Aemii spoiled her pets, and Lynda was extremely self-centered, though all three were good people at heart. Angel had always been different, preferring to sit for hours on end than to play with her sister, and Lynda had no time for her eccentric younger sister, preferring, in turn, to go out and play with her friends, taunting boys and giggling amongst themselves.

"Angel began voicing prophecies when Lynda was a year or so, Angel being only a few months old. Aemii realized she was a seer almost immediately, and allowed Angel to continue to be a recluse, for fear of other pets turning on her. Aemii always understood the problem with pets that were different, and never wanted her younger daughter hurt by bullies for her visions. 'They are a gift, these visions,' she told her children. Angel began to control her visions, seeing the past and present as well as the future. She would do nothing but search the world through her mind for days, needing neither food nor drink. She became thin, weak in body, though never sickly. Aemii and Lynda both worried.

"Lynda was an artist, and had won a contest to go to the new world, what we now know as the Lost Desert. She was to paint pictures of the landscapes and life forms she saw, so that the rest of Meridell could see what the new world was like. She was selected along with several other students, all for different reasons. All in all, at the port city, the first city of the new world, there were around one hundred pets, both older and younger.

"Only a week or so after her group arrived, the city was attacked by a vampire.

"Mortals are right to fear vampires. They cannot be killed by mortal means, save beheading, as they cannot bleed to death. They have unnatural reflexes, and are often stronger than mortals. In the dark, they can see better than even korbats. And then, they have two final advantages that no other mortal pets have—they have wings, stronger than those of a shoyru, more dexterous than those of a hissi or korbat. The second advantage, of course, is the venomous fangs.

"The lone vampire killed over half of the pets in the research city. The rest fled to their ships, leaving the new world behind to return to the safety of their homes to fetch help. A full fleet of soldiers from Meridell and Brightvale came, but they found the place deserted, with no trace of any struggle or intruder. Many of the scientists were considered to be mad…but then, how to explain the missing pets? The new city set up was much more well-defended, its citizens living in fear of vampires.

"But what of the mortal Lynda? A vampire's venom does not kill unless left to spread for hours. Vampires may use their venom to kill quickly, but it is a conscious effort. If a vampire bites a mortal, then pushes his or her magic through the victim, a strange reaction takes place. The mortal's body changes, growing fangs and wings despite its species, and also gaining the use of magic. All demons have magic—it manifests itself in the physical world as black fire. It is one way to tell a vampire from a mortal.

"The vampire's name was Jhyrok, Jhyrok Nhallikaos. When Lynda awoke, her body no longer mortal flesh, he revealed himself to be the Emperor of vampires, and renamed her Ayllinaos, which, in the ancient vampiric language, means 'brightest eclipse'. Her given name, Enyashol, means 'hope of the darkness', for he had heard prophecies, and believed that she was the one that would lead the vampiric empire to conquer the world and enslave the mortal race."

Dray sighed, bringing Tae back to the present. He realized he was gaping at her. He had never expected any of this. He had known that Fangy must have been mortal at some time, but never had put into any thought how she had been changed. "What then?" he asked, his voice shaking slightly. Dray looked over at him sadly, half-smiling.

"Sylvver can tell you the next part of the story—the three of us know each other's minds as well as our own. Still, in the end, you will have to ask Enyashol herself. There is much to this story that only she can tell you." Dray turned as if to leave.

"Wait!" Tae called. Dray stopped but did not turn. "Is that why you all listen to her? Because she was empress?" Dray looked over her shoulder, and he thought suddenly that she looked a hundred years old.

"Sometimes," and with that cryptic answer, she was gone, faded into the forest as suddenly as she had come, leaving Tae with a thousand questions and a lot to take in.


	7. Spirit Sisters

"Klep—er, Sylvver?" Tae stammered. The shoyru turned and looked at him in surprise.

"Hey, TD. What can I do for you?" She quickly composed herself, but Tae could still see her confusion easily. He opened his mouth to speak, but stopped as she frowned, and then nodded, as if understanding something. "Ah, I see." She sat down on one of the comfy chairs that adorned her room, motioning for Tae to do the same. "Keep in mind, though, this is the story commonly told, and there is much that only Enyashol can tell you. Dray and I know it from her memories, but it is her story to tell.

"The newly changed vampire was crowned Empress soon after, second in the empire to only Jhyrok, who still reigned supreme control. Shoal stayed by his side for quite some time, hunting mortals just as the rest of those who were now her people did. For a while, she forgot all about the human Lynda.

"Then, the Emperor's hunters brought back a prisoner from the area of Meridell she had come from. Jhyrok, testing her, gave the mortal boy to his Empress as a gift. Shoal, trapped in her own mind, killed her own friend, drinking his blood, realizing what she had done only when she saw his body lying still on the floor. Loathing herself, she fled Jhyrok and the other vampires.

"I found her lying on a rock, nearly dead from various wounds all along her body. Vampires cannot bleed to death under normal circumstances, but her soul was weakened from killing her one-time friend. She told me that Jhyrok and his hunters had inflicted the wounds. She told me she wished to die.

"Westerners like me and my brothers are the sworn enemies of vampires, more so than mortals, even. When Shoal saw me, she thought I had come to kill her, but I could hardly take her life while she was defenseless. I brought her back to the Emperor—Raevvyn, my brother—and enlisted our palace healers to nurse her back to health.

"Andriana, in the meantime, _saw_ something else. She had seen me coming, and that we would be friends, but even when she first met me, she told me she had had another dream, one who's meaning she was uncertain of. She said, in her dream, she was dancing under a full moon, a wild dance like life itself. Two others were dancing with her—one appeared to her as a silvery moon-beam, and the other a dark shadow which not even the moon's light could penetrate.

"Dray came from her northern kingdom to tell me of a new dream. She said she saw a pale rock, like moonstone, with three drops of blood. One was what you would consider normal, red blood, one was a pale red that almost shimmered, and the third was dark blue. The three drops of blood merged together in her dream, until one could see no difference.

"This disturbed her greatly, as most of this was easily definable. Westerners, like myself, have blood every bit as red as mortals. Shifters' blood is much paler, and seems to shimmer under moonlight. But blue blood…

"If you look at your veins, you see that your blood appears blue, but if you tear apart the skin covering it, it will turn bright red. Vampires' blood, on the other hand, does not change color. Dray took the red blood to mean me, the shifter's blood to mean herself, and the blue blood to mean a vampire. However, in her dream, the three drops became one—like in her first dream, where she danced with a moonbeam and a shadow.

"I was strangely curious about the injured vampire I had found, and visited the room she was kept in often. She did not awaken for several days, and in that time, Dray reached the palace. It was the room with Shoal that she found me in. As she told me of her new dream, Shoal awoke.

"Vampires' magic is as much or more ingrained into their subconscious instinct as blinking is to humans. What she did was natural, but all the same, she brought up her magic to defend herself, sensing, though only half-awake, that a shifter and a Westerner were near her. Without thinking, both Dray and I did the same, preparing to fight. Our magics, white, silver, and black, touched, and for an instant, merged. All three of us began to hear thoughts that were not our own.

"It took us a while to understand what had happened—especially because, in the beginning, our thoughts were going along the same track; mainly, 'what is going on?' Dray was the first to really understand it, but then, she was the one that had the dreams in the first place. Though we were not the same species, nor in the same position, and nor did we have the same personality, we all could have been the same people. We were, in effect, alternate universe versions of each other. Had Shoal been born a shifter, or had I been born mortal and been bitten, or had Dray been a Westerner, we would have made all of the same choices, and still ended up where we are now.

"Naturally, we are not the same person, as we were at birth. Imagine if another TD had never been abandoned by his first owner—think of how different you would have been. But we knew—and still know—each others' minds as well as our own, and can speak between our minds at will.

"Shoal told us what had happened, and we believed her. Both Dray and I have relived her past through her memories. No-one else really trusted her, but they trusted me, and so she was not killed. I was well enough respected throughout my brother's empire that many pets gave her a chance because I was her spirit-sister. Raevvyn, in particular, though he had been somewhat dubious about tending to a vampire, became her friend—he is the closest thing she has to a father in this world.

"There is much more to this tale, stories that would take hours to tell, but little of true importance to what you are trying to understand. In the end, we defeated Jhyrok—Shoal herself killed him. By this time, she had found Lone Wolf, and they loved each other. Keijjallah had been her friend since before she had fled Jhyrok the first time, and gave up the hunt as well, desiring peace above blood, and of course, to be with her brother and sister. Ahjen had helped Shoal out on numerous occasions, and after finding that Keijjallah was his long lost elder sister—all three, Kia, Ahjen, and Iiyollah, were human once—he and his younger sister came with the rest of us. Darkness took us in, but strangely enough, it was Shoal we all looked to as a leader. Perhaps it is more subconscious than anything—we look to the strongest for authority.

"Shoal has only somewhat accepted the fact that she, in essence, leads us. She is separated from her mate, Lone Wolf, for long periods of time, which is never easy for either of them, but necessary sometimes. And Hyrenu…" Klepto broke off abruptly. "There is more to this story, much of it, as I said, romantic tales that should be saved for cold winter nights. But there is some I did not tell you, and for that, you will have to ask Enyashol herself." Tae looked at Klepto, still bringing himself out of the past.

"Thank you," he managed finally. "You've given me a lot to think about." It was the truth.

"Tae." Tae turned as Klepto said his name, though he was already half-way out the door. "Don't judge yourself too harshly. No-one trusts a vampire easily." Tae blinked at her. It was as if she knew exactly what was on his mind. The Westerner grinned. "Don't worry; _I_ don't know you that well. She does." And she pointed past Tae to the hallway, where a certain shadow xweetok was raising one eyebrow wryly.

"Come with me."


	8. Who Are We?

_Am I in trouble? Why?_ Tae wondered as Fangy led him along the hallways of CO/D's home/mansion. She seemed—resigned. Not quite angry, but close. Tae wondered suddenly if she hadn't wanted him to hear about her past.

But no, now that he thought of it that seemed very unlikely. It was very subtle, with no obvious marks like spoken commands, but Tae was beginning to see how much Fangy really was in control here. It came out in the silences the various pets had kept, in how much they had told him and no more. _She's controlling this whole thing,_ he thought, amazed. _I doubt half of the people here even realize that they're not completely in control,_ he speculated.

Fangy stopped suddenly, and hissed something at her door. It swung open, and Tae caught sight of a few sparks of black fire along the doorframe. The vampire motioned him to one of the various cushions for the second time that day. Tae shivered slightly—vampires did not feel the cold, so even in this late fall, she lit no fire in her room. She gestured towards the fireplace abruptly, a sharp, angry movement that caught him by surprise in more than one way. For one thing, Klepto had been right—Fangy _did_ know him well, or at least, understood his body language. The second thing was surprise that she cared enough about him, even as angry as she was, to light a fire.

"I suppose you have a few questions." Her tone was terse, short. She still had not turned to face him. Her front paws were on the sill of her window, her leathery wings half-extended as if to fly straight through it. Tae got the feeling that if he could see her face, her eyes would be burning red.

_Only a million or so,_ he thought, but asked the most relevant first. "Why are you mad at me?"

Fangy sighed, turning away from the windowsill, dropping back on to all fours. Her eyes had been red, just as he thought, but that was quickly fading. "I'm sorry." Tae blinked in surprise. That was the last thing he had expected to hear. "I'm not angry at you. I'm angry at…the universe, I suppose you could say. That things like this happen. That good people are hurt by things they cannot control." She looked him straight in the eye. "There is much I still have to teach you, and much you need to know. You may hate me, I do not know. But I will finish the story you have heard first."

Fangy turned away from him again, but he could still hear every word she said quite clearly. "I went back to Aemii's house, just once. It was soon after the connection between myself and my spirit-sisters was realized. I didn't intend to let them see me; I just had to know what was going on. I looked into the kitchen window, and saw Aemii alone, crying. I found out later that Angel was dead. Aemii had lost both of her pets, her daughters. I made a mistake then, and I should have known better. I went to Aemii, tried to tell her that one of her daughters survived, albeit not mortal. She did not, would not recognize me, tried to drive me off, to kill me. I do not know what has happened to her now. To her, her daughters _are_ dead.

"There is more to the story of me and Jhyrok, as well, more that I would not have you hear from any but myself. Jhyrok heard of me from a prophecy, one I have come to believe he misinterpreted. He meant to use me to strengthen his empire. He never meant to fall in love with me.

"And I loved him. We were perfect for each other." She looked back at Tae, correctly interpreting the expression on his face. "Oh, I love Lone Wolf. He is my soul mate." She sighed, looked back out the window. "But Jhyrok and I were…more, much more, and yet much less. One of us would have killed the other in the end, no matter how the story went: that is the vampire way. And I killed him. I hated him, loved him, hated myself for doing it, but I knew I had to. Sylvver told you that when she found me dying, I told her that Jhyrok and his hunters had inflicted those wounds. This in itself is the truth—that is what I told. I was lying.

"I inflicted those wounds on myself.

"I was trying to kill myself. I loved him, Tae, I loved Jhyrok, I loved him and hated him more than anything…

"And now I had killed my friend. I didn't know what I was anymore, who I was. For a long time, I didn't. Lone Wolf helped me to mend my heart, but with Jhyrok dead, there was no-one to help me mend my soul.

"My sisters understand more than anyone. Well, I have told them more than anyone, except for you. You deserve to know the whole truth. Do you remember the vampiric kyrii you met, the one with the black, glaring eyes?" Tae nodded, remembering. "That is my son, and Jhyrok's son." Tae could only stare. "Hyrenu knows who his father is, but besides my sisters, and now you, he is the only one who knows. We dare tell no-one—I do not know if you can possibly understand how hated Jhyrok was, but trust me, if it were known that his only son survived…

"I do not know if you can understand. I tell you this so that you can gain some level of understanding for why I have done what I have done…especially to you." Tae stared at her in confusion, and she sighed sadly.

"Tae, what mortal pets live with Darkness?" The question caught him by surprise, and he had to think for a moment.

"I—me, Lone Wolf, and Sadie." _I actually used their real names,_ he thought, almost amused.

"Tell me, why? I know you have seen the control I have. There are no secrets of that kind from you. But tell me, why do I keep two mortal pets among demons and magical beings?" Tae thought for a moment, confused.

"Lone Wolf is your mate," he said haltingly. "And Sadie is Ahjen's mate."

"What about Keijjallah? And Hyrenu? Why do I allow two potentially dangerous vampires to live among mortals and Westerners?"

Tae felt abruptly uneasy. She was going somewhere with this, and he thought that he might not want to know what she was trying to tell him. "Hyrenu is your son. And Keijjallah…" Why Keijjallah? He thought back to the story he had heard. "Keijjallah gave up the hunt."

"So why take her in here? Could she not live among vampires, or among other mortals?" Tae shook his head slowly.

"Other vampires would kill her for being different," he said hesitantly. "And mortals would do the same."

"Tell me, why is Ahjen here? And Iiyollah? Why can they not live among other werelupes? What is so strange about them?"

"Ahjen's mate is mortal, and their older sister is a vampire." The answers were coming more easily now, and he felt like he was on the edge of something he could not quite understand.

"Why is Sylvver here? Why does Raevvyn spend so much time here, and not live permanently in his Western empire? Why is Eirnykk here, and not with his people?"

"Sylvver…Sylvver is your sister in spirit. Westerners wouldn't trust someone who had such a close friend in a vampire…and Raevvyn is your friend as well. His people trust him, but only barely. Eirnykk wants to be with his sister, and would be shunned for consorting with vampires as well." Anticipating her next question, he added, "Khaevii is Hyrenu's friend, and has the same problem."

"Odd, don't you think?" she shot at him. "Odd that you can find a reason for everyone to be here. Tell me, Thy Death, why are you here?" Tae looked at her in surprise, realizing that he did not have an answer.

And he didn't want to know.

"Tell me, why are there other mortals here? You have told me—their mates are not mortal. In fact, anyone here would be shunned or killed for either what they are or who they consort with. But what of you? You never knew anyone of the shadow world until I convinced Darkness to bring you here. Had I not shown you your magic, you would have lived a normal life. So tell me, why are you here? Why!?" She was nearly shouting at him, but her eyes seemed more tortured than angry. She looked like she could cry.

And Tae was scared. Terrified, in fact, but for once, not because of the vampire in front of him, but instead because of an awful truth that seemed to search him out. His mind scrambled, grasping for any saving explanations, not even understanding what was looking him in the face. "Magic," he blurted out. The vampire laughed sardonically.

"Magic, yes, magic! And what of this magic? Odd, isn't it? A mortal with magic? Have you noticed any mortal mages, Tae? Have you seen Lone Wolf or Sadie use inner fire? And look at your own fire! Have you noticed anyone else, perhaps, with a similar magic? Whose talents have you noticed coincide rather strongly with yours?" Tae stared at her in terror, afraid of the demon before him and the one within him.

"Have you looked in the mirror lately? Do you know how to recognize non-mortals?" Tae couldn't speak, could move at all, petrified in terror and denial. "Look at my eyes! Green rimmed with gold! Look at Keijjallah's eyes! Rimmed with gold! Raevvyn, Sylvver, Eirnykk, Khaevii! Their eyes are all rimmed in silver! And have you seen Dray's eyes? Blue eyes, rimmed with _black!_ Black, Tae! Like all shifters! _Look at yourself!_" She jerked him upright, forcing him towards the mirror on her wall. "Look at your magic! White magic! _Look at your eyes!_"

And Tae did. He stared, horrified, trying to deny everything she was screaming at him, everything he was seeing. Tears streaked his face, falling out of eyes with black-rimmed irises.

Shifter.

No.

_No. I'm mortal. I know I am! No, no, no!_

"No mortal has magic, Tae, and none but those born of the race of shifters have the power to transform themselves into other beings. The Westerners have host forms, yes, forms of petpets which they can assume. But only shifters can do what Dray did this morning. What you did."

_No. No!_

"There was a reason I brought you here, Tae, and there is a reason I am angry." Her voice was bitter now, no longer screaming, but Tae almost wished she was—it made it harder for him to think. "I knew you would figure it out eventually, and here, at least, you had a chance of survival. And I am angry, Tae, angrier than anyone can understand…except maybe you. The world is a cruel place, a place where things happen to people who do not wish for them, people that did nothing to deserve them. All you have wanted since you came here was to be alone, away from us, even back at the pound. You have never been understood throughout your entire life. I know, Tae, I know…" she sounded tired, almost apathetic. "And now you find that you have understood yourself least of all. Tae…" Her eyes were half-closed, as if it wasn't worth the effort to open them. Her voice dropped to a whisper, but he could hear her just fine. "I'm so sorry."

She walked out of the room, her wings dragging, leaving Tae to curl up where she had left him and cry, cry for his lost mortality, for the life he had once thought he had, for everything that he now knew was gone forever.


	9. Why Do These Things Happen?

Enyashol wandered through the house, feeling like her heart was breaking all over again. To think yourself mortal your entire life, only to find that you never quite fit in because you were something that you had considered a nightmare, not a mortal at all…

_This shouldn't have to happen,_ she thought fiercely. If she listened, she could hear everything in the house. Ahjen and Sadie were curled up together in front of the fire in Ahjen's room, talking softly. Iiyollah and Keijjallah were outside, Iiyollah enjoying the sunshine, Keijjallah staying safely in the shade, both sisters enjoying the other's company. Enyashol growled bitterly. Once every thirteen months came a full moon called the Wolf Moon, during which Sadie and the Westerners barricaded themselves inside the house, and Ahjen and even sweet little Iiyollah became vicious, untamable monsters.

Hyrenu was pacing in his room, Khaevii trying to talk to him. Eirnykk was blissfully unaware that they were, once again, talking behind his back. Khaevii and Eirnykk loved each other, and had had an arranged marriage from the cradle, but Khaevii loved Hyrenu as well, a love Hyrenu returned tenfold. But they could never be together as they wished, not because of the arranged marriage, but for the much simpler and much, much less alterable fact that he was a demon, a vampire. Shoal growled under her breath again, frustrated beyond words.

Why had any of this happened? None of them had done anything to deserve it. And it was hard, when it was so easy to see the ways their lives would have gone, had they all been mortals.

The ways their lives should have gone.

Snarling, she burst into her more personal quarters, needing to destroy _something_. Most of the room was in shambles for this exact reason—it had been her sole victim for the pent up fury that was both a mark of what she was and who she was. She growled, sinking her fangs and claws into one of the mostly-intact chairs sitting around the room, throwing it against the other wall, shattering it into a hundred pieces. She stared at it a moment, then sank to the floor, suddenly exhausted. _Why?_ was all she could think as she drifted to sleep. _Why, why, why, why…_


	10. Shifters

An eyrie stood on the edge of the roof, her white pelt shimmering in the moonlight. She gazed across the endless forests as if searching for something.

"Andriana." The whisper seemed to come from nowhere, but the eyrie did not turn, sat down instead. A second eyrie emerged from the darkness, his black body hardly distinguishable from the night. He sat down next to her, and their pelts blended together in the moonlight.

Neither spoke until long after the sun had risen over the trees, and even then, they sat in silence, their bodies pressed together, keeping each other warm, both in body and in soul.


End file.
